Monday mornings are almost always the low point of the week for me. The inevitable dread of what might be waiting for me at the office, all the things I forgot at home because I rushed out the door…especially after being off sick for a week.

I arrived at the office to find the lush greenery decimated. A beautiful Mulberry and Hawthorne hacked to pitiful stumps by our completely clueless and clearly inept gardener. I use the word gardener very loosely here as his ineptitude extends to many other areas regarding our office. I could dedicate a whole post to our gardener’s follies but that would just make me angry…and I’d rather not be angry today.

One of the things I have been putting off is organizing my bookmarks in Firefox. Sounds pretty trivial, I know…but with how much of my job is internet related, my bookmarks have got to be very easy and very fast to navigate. So after slogging through the countless random entries and spur of the moment entries for about 25 minutes, I decided I needed to go to my green sanctuary…forgetting that it had been destroyed. I walked out the back door, only to feel my heart drop to my toes. The very angry squirrel looked at me as if to say, “You think you’re pissed off?”

Sighing and making a mental note to chase our gardener down with a set of very sharp, very long bladed pruning shears…I came back to my desk and continued the task of weeding my bookmarks. The sheer volume of links was overwhelming, but one jumped out at me:

The tag said it all “Free Hugs”…if you don’t know it, you may want to watch it before reading further, otherwise you may not follow what comes next.

I love this video for so many reasons. The music is so fitting, the change from black and white to colour at the perfect time…and most importantly, the message. I played it twice and felt my sour mood dissipate like fog in the face of the sun. I was struck by how easily the message of unconditional comfort could lift my heart. Being able to reach out, fearlessly, without either person expecting or wanting anything other than that moment. It is truly beautiful and reassuring that one person…a man… would have the courage to put himself out there in such a way, and welcome all people into his embrace.

This type of action humbles me.

Like all inspired things, FREE HUGS, has become a sentient life form. When that kind of genuine compassion rules our world, we will be evolved…not until then. I felt recharged and suitably enlightened. Grinning like an idiot, I stepped back outside as the sun had finally broken through the clouds. As the door closed behind me…a turkey vulture swooped past my head, wingtips touching my cheek.